1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to plastic bags and particularly relates to packaging and dispensing of plastic bags. It especially relates to singly dispensing and sequentially separating plastic bags from a plurality of attached bags within a package or carton.
2. Review of the Prior Art
Plastic bags of varying sizes are being used for an ever wider variety of purposes. When bags are to be removed and used by a customer in a self-serve situation, it is generally preferred that they be folded because rolls are not always easily manageable and may require a stand or other dispensing means. In some instances, however, such as produce bags in the produce section of a supermarket, the bags are dispensed from a roll mounted at approximately head height and are separated by tearing along a transverse line of perforations. Doing so, however, generally requires the use of both hands. Even when bags are to be used by a clerk within a supermarket, such as for protecting frozen foods, it is often desirable that they be dispensable from a shelf beneath a counter by using one hand. For such purposes, plastic bags are also often preferred in a folded arrangement.
However, folded plastic bags present their own problems. For example, an outstanding characteristic of plastic bags is their surface slipperiness which can cause an entire stack of folded bags to slide off a shelf when a single bag is pulled. This characteristic surface slipperiness has caused plastic bags to be provided with a means for dispensing from a package having some rigidity, such as a box made of stiff paperboard, as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,896,966.
U.S. Pat. No. 396,675 describes a flattened roll of toilet or wrapping paper having all of its lines of perforations or incisions along the same plane and having a stay passing through the lines of perforations to maintain them in a fixed position.
U.S. Pat. No. 714,652 also describes a flattened roll of toilet paper which is bent in a U-shape, as shown in FIG. 3, around a pasteboard core and having cuts along its inner or concave surface, whereby a neck or unsevered portion hangs down from its convex surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 733,283 relates to a flattened roll of toilet paper which is folded in a U or V-shape and supported by an extension passing through a slit in the paper, whereby the paper separates at this extension and hangs downwardly from the other side of the flattened roll.
U.S. Pat. No. 745,612 relates to a continuous strip of paper wound in roll form and partially severed to facilitate the removal of the detached sheets, with the roll being wound on a large core and flattened in the middle, the flattened roll being held by a detent at a point sufficiently distant from the point of severance to permit a partial withdrawal of the sheets from the front end of the roll before the strain of withdrawal is applied to the detent.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,170,590 describes a paper roll wound around a large core in the general form of a cylinder and provided with an inwardly extending longitudinal channel or groove, with a plurality of incisions cut in a single plane and opposite to the channel. The roll may also be flattened on either side of the channel.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,686,458 discloses folded but separated sheets of paper which are disposed in a paper holder in upwardly concave position for center dispensing.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,984,780 relates to a wax paper package formed by folding a lengthy sheet of wax paper lengthwise and into a flattened package which is then placed in a dispensing box while bent in a U-shape. Pulling on the outermost layer causes the U-shaped paper to tumble over and over until a desired length is obtained and the paper is severed along a cutting edge on the box.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,864,495 describes a center-dispensed roll of tissue paper which is disposed in a rectangular box having a hole at one end through which the paper is pulled.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,881,632 describes a compact dispensing package for facial tissues which comprises a top-dispensing carton, an inverted Y-shape support member within the carton, and a bundle of substantially uniform sheets, the bundle being folded upon itself into a U-shape and draped over the inverted Y-shape support member so that the middle of the carton is supported subjacent the top wall of the carton which is provided with a narrow dispensing aperture or opening for insertion of a thumb and forefinger and grasping the topmost sheet.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,896,966 discloses a bag dispensing package containing an assembly of slippery, separated, plastic bags folded at their mid-sections around a stiff panel which is substantially one-half of the height of the plastic bags, the folded end being exposed through a central opening whereby the outermost bag may be grasped and pulled through the opening.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,973,695 describes a dispensing container for premoistened, perforated towels which are provided as a roll in upright position within the container and beneath a dispensing outlet comprising a slot with a circular portion at one end and an enlarged portion at the other end, whereby the tissue can be pulled therethrough and tension can be selectively applied for separating the tissue along the perforations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,002,264 also describes a flexible bag dispenser for a roll of interconnected moist tissues which are withdrawn from the center of the roll and passed through a restricted opening in one end of the bag dispenser.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,044,919 describes a thermoplastic bag dispensing assembly which comprises a dispensing carton and a number of separated plastic bags of the "fold and lock" type, having integral transversely extending ribs, whereby withdrawal of each bag through an elongated slot along the upper edge of the carton ensures that only the outermost bag in the stack of bags is grasped by a user and withdrawn.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,171,047 relates to a center-dispensed, longitudinally folded sheet of wickable material which is stood upright as a rolled web within an impervious container to provide moistened towelettes to users.
British Patent Application No. 2,106,862 describes a carton having a dispensing aperture disposed at one end and a roll of an elongated web which is perforated at regular intervals therewithin. The roll is dispensed from its center opening through the aperture in the carton, this aperture being provided with tapering constricted regions that enable a sufficient quantity of the web to be separated from the remaining portion thereof.
When a continuous web of material is dispensed endwardly from the center of a roll, whether or not the roll is flattened, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,864,495, 3,973,695, and 4,171,047 and British Pat. Application No. 2,106,862, the web is twisted once per withdrawn revolution. If a dispensed bag is half as long as the inside diameter of the roll, the bag has one-half of a complete twist; if equal in length to the inside diameter, the bag has one entire twist; and if twice as long as the inside diameter, it possesses two complete twists. With some materials, such as heavy-weight kraft paper, this twist may cause little difficulty because the material may possess enough memory to recover, thereby eliminating the twist. However, for a slippery-surfaced plastic having virtually no memory, the twist must be manually removed and can be decidedly inconvenient to the user. Such inconvenience is particularly pronounced when the user is pulling large trash or garbage bags from a dispensing container in which there is a center-unwindable roll of these bags, because the larger the bag, the more twist it is given during dispensing. Manually removing such twist is even more of a nuisance when dispensing industrial liners which have a film thickness of 0.6-0.8 mil.
There is accordingly a need for a method and means for dispensing large center-unwindable plastic bags with minimum hand manipulation by the user.
A carton for shipping and successively dispensing large plastic bags from a center-unwindable roll thereof should have as nearly square a configuration, in the dimensions that are perpendicular to the width of the bags, as possible in order to maximize the strength of the carton and its shipping, storing, and dispensing characteristics and convenience. There is consequently a need for a method that can selectively impart such a selected configuration to a roll of center-unwindable plastic bags being packaged into a carton.